The Pamelyn Ferdin Web Page

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Summary of Pamelyn's Acting Credits

All info assembled from various sources on the net,
contributions from visitors, and
from credits from Pamelyn. There's a pretty good filmography for her on the Internet Movie Database,
and that's where most of these summaries point. It looks like they've cribbed a lot of
information from this page, too! If you remember Pamelyn
from some other appearance, send it to me in e-mail.

The Monkees (TV April 17, 1967, episode 31, first season) "Monkees in the
Movies" When the starring role in a 'beach party' movie goes to Davy, the others have
to bring him down to earth. Features "Last Train To Clarksville" and Bobby
Sherman.

Pamelyn's in the credits, but she's never on-screen. Sleuthing by visitor Jeff
Hoback reveals this Monkees
page which explains "The characters of The Girl (portrayed by Pamelyn Ferdin) and
her Mother (portrayed by the late Aileen Carlisle) were given credit in
"Movies"' end titles and Screen Gems Storylines entry, but were never actually
filmed for the penultimately aired segment. According to the original synopsis for
The Monkees In The Movies, the girl shoves her mother forward and announces
she sings. The mom lets fly a voice that can be heard for miles, and Kramm, Philo and The
Monkees join in on the ear-splitting audition." (Summary)

1968The One and Only Genuine Original Family Band (Movie 1968) (Summary)
Laura Bower.

Nominated for Best Performance by a Juvenile Actress. Also stars a young Kurt Russell
and Goldi Hawn.

An exclusive image and message from fellow child star Vernon
"Mark" McDougal. "I was in the 1968 Walt Disney production of The One and
Only, Genuine, Original Family Band with Pamelyn. I have a studio picture of us together
with Walter Brennan, Butch Patrick, Bobby Riha and Andrea Sacino in the 'Schoolhouse
Scene'."

From http://www.polaris.it/startrek/classic3.htm
and http://server2.powernet.net/~jcrafton/
comes this:
60 AND THE CHILDREN SHALL LEAD Oct 11, 1968, written by Edward J. Lasko, directed by
Marvin Chomsky, music by George Duning. Stardate 5029.5: Kirk and the crew, visiting a scientific colony
on Triacus manned by several human families of the Starnes Expedition, are shocked to find that all but the children have died violently - and the
children do not seem to care about anything but playing. Aboard the Enterprise, the
children gradually begin to influence and take over the minds of the crew as part of a
plan by their "friendly angel," a seemingly benevolent alien called Gorgon who
uses children as a means of spreading his influence, and unless he can find some way to
expose Gorgon's true intentions, Kirk will become a prisoner on his own ship. Guest Cast:
Craig Huxley (Tommy Starnes), James Wellman (Professor Starnes), Melvin Belli (Gorgan),
Majel Barrett (Nurse Chapel), Pamelyn Ferdin (Mary), Caesar Belli (Steve), Mark Robert
Brown (Don), Brian Tochi (Ray), Lou Elias (1st Technician).

Sadly, both the Hackman and
Usenet ratings guides of the Star Trek original series episodes rank this episode at
the very bottom of the list, making it the all-time least-favorite TOS episode, so it must
have camp value.

It also stars Melvin Belli, also known as the lawyer who
defended Jack Ruby, the man convicted of murdering Lee Harvey Oswald.

According to Pam, "I had such a crush on Bill
Shatner at the time, I followed him everywhere he went on the set, until he finally asked
me to marry him and gave me a cigar band!"

Craig Huxley now operates a sound studio
called The
Enterprise Studio and was responsible for the "blaster beam" sound in
"Star Trek: The Motion Picture."

Pam's
autographed picture, circa 1968

Gene Kelly Special (TV 1968)

Jerry Lewis at the Greek Theatre (TV 1968) Dancing, singing.

The Woody Woodbury Show (TV talk show 1968) Dancing and singing, two or three appearances.

Recordings of The Woody
Woodbury Shows no longer exist. Ralph Edwards said the masters
and station copies had been erased. No kinescopes could be found. Even Woody didn't have
any copies. Here's an interview with Woody. He also has a web site.

According to Pamelyn, "The husband
of Judy Garland, Sid Luft, came up afterward and tried to sign me as an
agent because my voice (I sang "Somewhere Over the Rainbow")
sounded so much like Judy's rendition. Needless to say nothing ever came of
it, but I remember doing the show very well.

Pamelyn and her friend Pam
Stedwell, playing at the studio on the Partridge Family bus after shooting
an episode of Blondie. Exclusive personal photo courtesy of Stedwell.
Pamelyn says she got her "first kiss" from friend Danny Bonaduce
when they were age eight.

(Another fan points out an inconsistency in this
memory: Blondie was filmed at Universal Studios, while the Partridge
Family was filmed at Columbia Studios. Another fan points out that the
Partridge Family didn't begin until a year after Blondie was
cancelled. Later, Pam Stedwell found a second picture
of this bus and it says "Magic Bus" so perhaps it was a 60s prop
at Universal.)

Publicity shot for
"Blondie"

Bruce Lee once had a walk-on appearance in an episode of
this CBS television series, a spin-off of the successful comic strip and movies.

This Saturday morning program certainly generated a lot of Pamelyn fans, myself
included.

An excerpt from "Chuck Amuck," the autobiography of Chuck Jones, the animator responsible for many
classic characters such as Bugs Bunny as well as "Curiosity Shop":

"For a year I was a vice president of the American Broadcasting Company, hoping to
help the cause of children's television programming. With the help of the National Film
Board of Canada, the Zagreb Studios, and many talented cartoonists such as Johnny Hart,
Don Arioli of the National Film Board, and Hank Ketcham, Curiosity Shop was
produced: a seventeen-unit one-hour program for Saturday morning. The program can be
described in a kindly way as highly ordinary, it did establish in my porous but not always
selective mind that short subjects and television specials were better arenas for talented
cel washers and that seventeen anythings a year was beyond my powers. Perhaps, in the
light of shows now disfiguring Saturday-morning television, beyond anyone's powers."

From the TV Feature Film Source Book: "Drama of a stray German
shepard dog who helps a young boy adjust to life with his new stepfather. Also starred Ron
Howard, Earl Holiman, Jacqueline Scott, Andy Devine."

1971The Psychiatrist (TV 1971) "The Private World of Martin Dalton".
Directed by Steven Spielberg. (Summary)
This series didn't make much of a mark in history; there were only six
episodes. Two episodes were directed by Spielberg. The other was
"Par for the course".Dr. Seuss: The Cat in the Hat (TV 1971) (Voice)
"Sally".
Play It Again, Charlie Brown (Voice) (TV 1971) "Lucy
Van Pelt"

The Odd Couple (TV 1971-73)
Pamelyn appeared in the first season "Bunny Is Missing Down By The Lake",
episode 18. Later she had a recurring role as Edna, Felix Unger's daughter. (Summary)

The above images were graciously
contributed by Jim's TV Collectables. If you'd
like your own 8x10s of these original ABC photo releases, please visit his site. Jim
Benson is working on a book about Rod Serling's Night Gallery, and plans to interview Pam
regarding her appearance in the "Brenda" episode in 1975.

As pointed out on this Odd
Couple Character bio page, Edna was played in later appearances by Doney Oatman, a
blonde. Felix's son was also played by two young men, one of whom was Leif Garrett.

Pam on the left, Doney on the right. And Doney today?

Many people confuse Pamelyn Ferdin with Lisa
Gerritsen a.k.a Lisa
True Gerritsen, another ubiquitous teen actress of the same era who played a character
named "Bunny" on "The Odd Couple", who like Pamelyn made at least four
appearances as four different young girls on "Family Affair", and who played the
daughter "Lydia Monroe" on "My
World And Welcome To It" (1969-1970) with William Windom. She's well-known for
her portrayal of Phyllis's daughter "Bess Lindstrom" on the Mary Tyler Moore
show (from the very first episode onward) and the subsequent "Phyllis" series in 1975.
("Mad About You" Helen Hunt played Murray's daughter "Laurie
Slaughter" in an episode of MTM.) In May 1971, Gerritson even made the cover of TV Guide.

According to possibly unsubstantiated
second-hand Usenet reports, Gerritson
is living happily in Colorado and gave birth to
triplets a few years ago. Another said she had been working at a California software
company. And in 2002, there was a fan
site for her, too, but it's been taken over by click farmers.

Marcus Welby, M.D. (TV 1971) "A Portrait of
Debbie"

From a letter from Robert Young: "Dear
Pam, Just saw a private screening of 'The Portrait of Debbie" and was thrilled with
the excellence and depth of your performance. It was a sensitive and touching portrayal
for which you can be properly proud. Was equally delighted with your debut in 'Curiosity
Shop' and was surprised to find that among your many outstanding talents you also sing.
With every best wish for all good things in your future."

From "Mephisto Waltz": Pamelyn
and a very 70s Alan Alda - but isn't he always?

Pamelyn has a Bacon number of 2, thereby demonstrating
her connectedness in Hollywood. William Windom was also in "My World and Welcome To
It", "The Mephisto Waltz," and in "She's Having a Baby" (1988)
with (tah-dah) Kevin Bacon. Other Bacon 2's are Liberace, Mr. T and Audrey Hepburn.
(Calculation courtesy of Oracle of
Bacon at Virginia. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, go there.) Windom was
also "Commander Decker" in the Trek episode "The Doomsday Machine" if
you're keeping track.

This is Clint Eastwood's second-least successful film in terms of box office, right
behind Pink Cadillac, said the Man
with No Name web page.

It's one of the very few films where Clint's character is killed. In this case,
Pamelyn's character does the killing, by feeding him poison mushrooms.

It wasn't originally in the script, and she attributes it to Clint's inspiration, and it
took her quite by surprise, but Pamelyn's character is passionately kissed by Clint's
character. Read the interview with Pamelyn
for her account of what happened.

Here's what "film comment"
magazine had to say about it, including a bit about Pam's role.

"The Beguiled announces its singularity with a bold stroke in its very first moments. After the child, Amy (played by Pamelyn Ferdin), finds McBurney ... the soldier pulls the child down with him into the foliage to hide from them (Confederate Unit). He ensures her silence not by placing a hand over her mouth but by kissing her--long and hard, almost passionately. It is a totally unexpected moment and even a quarter century later, after we have absorbed so many cinematic shocks, it retains its capacity to startle and discomfort. Indeed, in the entire Eastwood canon (including its many and often discussed violent passages), there is nothing that quite compares to its unexpectedness. - from "Clint Eastwood: a Biography", Richard Schickel, (1996), p. 241.

Pam once said regarding her voice work for Hanna-Barbera, "Joe Barbera ... was and
still is a gracious, creative visionary. He is a legend, and it's always an honor for me
to sit and talk with him surrounded by his awards and all the classic cartoon characters
he developed i.e., the Flintstones, Sylvester, the Jetsons, Huckleberry Hound, etc., etc.
Doing animation was always one of my most favorite things to do, so if I could do some
more of it that would be great, especially if the character I play could teach kids about
compassion and respect for animals."

Here's a link to a great list and description of all the
Hanna-Barbera cartoons maintained
by Cassie Chamberlain-Veselovsky.

"The Banana Splits transform into
cartoon characters as they team up with a magician in an attempt to save
Susie, a young visitor to Hocus Pocus Park, from the clutches of an evil
witch in this ABC Saturday Superstar Movie." This aired November
25, 1972.

I've since determined, through the research of Ron Kurer at Toontracker.com, that this episode does not feature Pamelyn. Instead, "Susie" is played by Michelle Tobin.

Many of the writers and production team for this show
came from the then-recently cancelled "Bewitched." See www.tvparty.com for an overview of
Lynde's career, including a RealAudio clip of the opener of the show. All of
tvparty.com is very well done, too.

"A horse named Beckett that was set to be put to sleep according to the will of a favorite aunt after her death. Pamelyn Ferdin's
character, Lynn, had bonded with the horse and was upset and tried to encourage her
father, a sheriff, to rescind the execution. Meanwhile, the aunt's horse handler who was injured by Beckett which resulted in him having "a bum leg" would do anything to kill the horse.

The father/sheriff was caught in the
middle, wanting to follow the law and please his daughter. After Lynn tried to help the horse to
escape, it was trapped under a fallen tree pushed over by the evil horse handler with his jeep. Just when they were about to shoot the horse because they couldn't release him Captain Marvel shows up and lifts off the tree and then flies to the Judge 500 miles away to get a court order to rescind the execution."
Description thanks to Shazam fan Wendolyn Johnson.

Johnny
Whitaker, who played "Jody" on Family
Affair and "Johnny Stuart" on Sigmund, found this web page and sent me an email note in
February 1999, hoping to contact Pamelyn. "I do go by John or Johnny now," he
said. "Thanks for an interesting site." There's a great background piece on
Whitaker from Collecting Online at popculture.com. [Link lost.]

In English: "Fifteen-year-old Chris Cavanaugh was driving home to San Francisco to
find her father, who she hadn't seen in a long time. When she was finally standing in from
of her father's appartment, she heard a gunshot. When Chris went into the apartment, she
saw a body on the floor - she thought it was his father. Afterwards, she explained to
Lieutenant Stone and Inspector Heller that it wasn't his father, and "forgot"
that she saw someone leave the apartment." (Translation courtesy Steve
Pietrowitz.)

She played a telepathic twin named "Laura". It
also starred Jonathan Harris (Dr. Smith from "Lost In Space") as Commander
Gampu, the 300-year old professor, as well as Peepo the robot, and Loki, the teleporting
orphan boy, and super-strong boy Tee Gar, played by Brian Tochi, who played
"Ray" in that ultra-bad Star Trek episode mentioned above. Space
Academy lasted a single season, and was followed the
next year by sequel "Jason of Star Command," using the same sets, models and
props. On this show, James Doohan (Star Trek's "Scotty") played Commander
Canaervon.

By all accounts from those who have any positive memories of Pam, this was a dreadful
movie. I haven't seen it yet. It's a horror flick involving a ski-mask-wearing voyeuristic
psycho (ubiquitous
but wacko actor Cameron
Mitchell) in an apartment building who wreaks moralistic vengeance with power tools.

In English: "Trap (John Bennett Perry), Thib (Mark Harmon) and Morgan (Joanna
Cassidy) are a rescue team with ' 240-Robert search and Rescue '. However Trap with the
new female pilot Morgan has some problems - for him she is too young and too pretty, in
order to be real top. Soon however the three are entangled into lethal applications, with
which the Macho Trap must detect: Morgan is first-class! When it reveals it with a
helicopter flight its feelings, it does not suspect that the whole ' 240-Robert-Base '
monitors the discussion over radio." (Translation courtesy Babelfish.)

"What is she doing now?"
After leaving the acting business, Ferdin became a registered nurse. In that capacity, she
met her husband, a surgeon, when they lived in Connecticut. Ferdin has always
been involved in
the cause of animal rights. She now lives in the Los Angeles area.

"Does she have any kids? I saw a girl in a commercial who looks just like
her." No, she doesn't have any children. On this issue, Pamelyn once said, "We
have no children as I feel that until every child has a home (just like every companion
animal), people should not breed!"

"Does she have a fan club?"

What, you
want a 60s-style fan club, with an old guy in a dingy room in Hollywood signing and
stuffing "autographed" pictures in response to endless bags of fan mail? Nah. No, not that I know of. Maybe this page is the closest thing to it.
Check out her official web site. After all, our unofficial status makes us cool, no?

"How can I e-mail or write to Pamelyn?" You can reach her at pamelyn@pamelynferdin.com
where she truly reads the e-mail at her official site.

"What's her birthday?" She was born February
4, 1959, which makes her 48
in 2006, of course. Yes, some references list her as being born in 1960, but she says she
wasn't.

A visitor points out this was the day after "the
music died," the day a plane crash took the life of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper, and
Richie Valens.

DisclaimerI made this page because I always wondered what happened to Pamelyn. It seems
almost a given these days that anyone's web page has to reflect their own personal
sentiments and aspirations. Here I take a journalistic view, striving for objectivity in
the reported events. I don't necessarily agree with everything that I've learned that
Pamelyn believes in, and that's OK.

The Pamelyn Ferdin Interview

The Seattle 'zine Feminist Baseball is published by a
Pam fan named Jeffrey Smith, and in the summer of 1995, he published a transcript of a
telephone interview with Pamelyn.

It's about 45K of HTML, but click
here to read it. It includes a detailed summary and commentary on her film and
television career.

Here's where I'll post the latest changes to this page, to save you from scanning it
all. Click here for my wacky prose
poem that started it all, on an unadvertised Web page that lured the unwary search
engine seeker of Pam.

4/2004 Pamelyn and husband appear on Penn and Teller's "Bullshit" debunking program on Showtime, on the opening episode talking about PETA. See the Showtime site for a video clip.

5/26/2006 Pamelyn and husband and her husband, Jerry Vlasak, each were convicted on misdemeanor counts of trespassing and targeted demonstration. A city ordinance prohibits a demonstration from occurring within 100 feet of a person's residence.

9/12/2006 Pamelyn's voice is said to be part of an upcoming documentary film called "Your Mommy Kills Animals", following the case of the prosecution of the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty web site. It has a Myspace page.

Dreamweaver's Child
Starlets - with info about videos to rent, and tons o' pix. They claim that Pamelyn
acted in the Saturday morning kid's show "Ark II", but even Pamelyn doesn't
remember if she did that.

Several times a week I receive e-mail from people who've
enjoyed this page.
Yes, if you send me something, I might place it here, minus any private details. The
fan mail section has gotten so large, I've split it into sections. Jump to fan mail
page one, two, three or four. Some of these comments are a little wacky. Almost all are
heart-felt. I encourage you to read them!